Mariners one win from World Series after late-game ALCS heroics shake Seattle

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Oct 17, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — Not since Boeing’s first plane took off from Lake Union 109 years ago has a flight had so many people in Seattle collectively holding their breath for so long.

The ball Cal Raleigh launched into the stratosphere at 5:48 p.m. Friday leading off the bottom of the eighth inning hung in the air for 6.7 seconds. It might as well have been an eternity, extending the angst and anxiety of a fan base that knows both as well as any.

When Raleigh’s home run landed just over the wall in left field, it not only tied the score, at 2-2, it gave the Mariners and their fans renewed hope that this magical season could continue.

And then Eugenio Suárez turned that belief into something tangible.

Suárez hit a tie-breaking, opposite-field grand slam off Toronto’s Seranthony Domínguez to move the Mariners closer to the World Series than they’ve ever been with a where-were-you-when-this happened, 6-2 come-from-behind victory over the Blue Jays in Game 5 of this American League Championship Series.

First Cal. Then Geno. Two of the most important swings in Mariners history, 12 minutes apart.

T-Mobile Park has never been so loud, and the 46,758 chanted “Ge-no! Ge-no! Ge-no!” as Suárez rounded the bases following the most meaningful home run of his 12-year career. The stadium shook in a way that rivals the Beast Quake as the most bone-rattling moment in Seattle sports history.

Dave Niehaus and Grandma would be mighty proud of this salami, Geno.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” said Suárez, who busted out a prolonged slump with two homers in Game 5. “I just feel so grateful right now and feel so good because we’re going to Toronto with an opportunity in front of us to go to a World Series.”

The Mariners have a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS and can clinch their first World Series berth as early as Sunday at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Game 7 would be Monday in Toronto, if necessary.

Up to the eighth inning Friday, Suárez’s second-inning solo homer off Toronto starter Kevin Gausman was the only run for a Mariners offense that was slumping for the better part of three straight games.

The Mariners had been two for their last 30 with runners on base and trailed 2-1 going into the eighth inning.

Batting right-handed for the first time Friday, Raleigh then hit a towering fly ball to left field leading off the inning, a sky-high blast that just cleared the wall and landed in a crowded Edgar’s Cantina.

“It felt like Cal’s ball was in the air for, like, an hour,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “But to see that one go over and tie the score, and then after Geno’s grand slam, I’m not sure I’ve heard that building any louder than that.”

It was Raleigh’s 64th home run this calendar year, and his fourth in 10 postseason games this month. At 348 feet it was one of his shortest of the season, but it still goes down as one of the most consequential home runs in franchise history.